Daily News

Posted on Jan. 2: Surgical therapy not safe for all

McMaster professor of medicine Deborah Cook, and other Canadian researchers, have shown a costly diagnostic and treatment tool, assumed to raise survival rates in many hospital settings, provided no benefit to patients facing major non-cardiac surgery. Dean Sandham of the University of Calgary's medical school, led the team that showed using pulmonary-artery catheters in older patients about to undergo such surgery does not raise their likelihood of surviving and, in fact, raises their risk of a life-threatening blood clot in the lungs. "We can't afford to use our health-care resources on things that aren't helpful," he said. The findings of their 10-year study, published in today's New England Journal of Medicine, contradict what, for some time, was considered a given: that high-risk surgery patients were less likely to die if a pulmonary-artery catheter was inserted before they went under the knife. "This will have a very large impact on patient care," said Cook, chair of the Canadian critical care clinical trials group. "This is truly a landmark study. It shows clearly that, in the population tested ..., there's no evidence of any benefit of having the pulmonary-artery catheter." Click here for the story in The Toronto Star.

Posted on Dec. 24: Happy Holidays

Happy holidays from the Daily News. The University will be closed from Wednesday, Dec. 25 to Wednesday, Jan. 1, reopening on Thursday, Jan. 2. Classes resume Monday, Jan. 6. Most campus services are closed for the holiday period. For a listing of dining facility operating hours visit Hospitality Services. Click McMaster Libraries for library hours of operation. Security will be on duty throughout the holiday period, providing services 24 hours a day. Officers will be patrolling campus, answering alarms and monitoring security systems. For assistance, call security at ext. 24281. The Daily News returns Thursday, Jan. 2.

Posted on Dec. 23: Training your brain as a baby helps you recognize people as an adult, study shows

When you recognize a new acquaintance across the room at a holiday party this year, know that the reason you can do so is because of work your brain and eyes did when you were a baby. McMaster University vision scientists have discovered that the ability to recognize someone from different points of view - when they look down at a tray of food or turn their head to the side as a friend arrives - is dependent upon seeing things during the first few weeks of life. Their study's findings were published in the November issue of the journal Developmental Science. "The visual experience you have as a baby is training the brain for the future," said Daphne Maurer, a psychology professor and vision scientist at McMaster, who oversaw the research conducted by graduate student Sybil Geldart. The other researchers involved in the study included McMaster research associate Catherine Mondloch, Scania de Schonen of the Laboratory of Cognition and Development at CNRS-Paris 5 and Dr. Henry Brent of the Hospital for Sick Children.